Unfortunately, I suspected the killer from his first meeting with Strike. The bit about the young dead brother gave it away for me as it, ahem, struck me right away that Bristow probably murdered both his siblings.
Having said that, I went through a gamut of possibilities throughout the book - I considered Bristow of having a secret lover and co-conspirator in Ursula, Ciara or Kieran; I also considered him conspiring with Wilson or his own mother. As long as he was involved in the possibility, I was game to consider it.
I think the solution was quite convoluted. I knew the killer the entire way through and yet still had to let Strike explain most of the details of the how to me at the end. I also think a lot of the explanation balanced on the edge of reason, even if Rowling took pains to make it clear that Bristow was very lucky. It was all a bit of a Rube Goldberg machine.
Despite some quibbles, I think this was a quality mystery and think it’s worthy of anyone interested in a proper old fashioned detective mystery. It was well written, with Rowling’s signature vibrancy, with colorful characters and colorful story mixed with a humanistic, multi-cultural and empathetic realism, and with much attention paid to the details, even if the details were at times convoluted.
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Originally Posted by caleb72
20% in. It might be just that I know about the woman writing under a male pseudonym, but this feels like a book written by a woman. Or at least, it reminds me of the other crime/detective novels I've read in recent past that were written by women.
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I couldn’t help but pay attention to this sort of thing as well; I was looking at it from the perspective of a woman writing who is trying to pass herself off as a manly man writing, but honestly I think she did an OK job of it. After all, no one suspected anything until the secret was leaked (despite The Sunday Times trying to pass the leak off as investigation after suspicion).
Some people have faulted the portrayal of some of her female characters in the book, but I think she did it on purpose to throw everyone off her scent.